This year’s “Coolest Thing In Kentucky” award went to a Murray-based manufacturer that takes hemp fibre and turns it into flooring and other products.
The award is offered each year and is administered by the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers in partnership with the Kentucky Farm Bureau. The winner is decided by public voting.
The 2024 winner, HempWood (Fibonacci, LLC), creates its products using a patented process that includes use of organic, soy-based bonding agents.
HempWood founder Greg Wilson was working for a bamboo flooring company years ago when the idea to try hemp as a material came to him. The company believes hemp will undoubtedly disrupt the $60+ billion dollar a year wood industry.
“Our flooring goes from seed to floor within 150 days and is 20% harder than American White Oak (Janka Hardness: 2,200 lbf),” states the company. “It’s the only carbon-negative, no-VOC hardwood flooring made in America.”
The flooring product consists of a 4-mm HempWood veneer bonded to a 12-mm hardwood plywood manufactured by Columbia Forest Products, also made with NAF soy-based adhesive resin.
The firm says HempWood’s zero volatile organic compound (VOC) improves indoor air quality and led to higher cognitive ability at projects at schools, universities and corporate sites. The flooring is CARB 2 and TSCA VI compliant, and has a Class 1 fire rating. The product can be cut, sanded, and stained.
All the hemp used is sourced within 100 miles of the company’s headquarters. Even the company’s power source is green, with its electricity supplied from hydropower; further reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Furthermore, the company’s “bio-burner” utilizes waste hemp to fuel the facility with heat energy.
“The entire purpose of HempWood is to do something positive that benefits the world, its people, and their environment,” states the firm. “Our vision is to create a brighter future for our planet and stimulate American manufacturing by introducing sustainable building materials with a negative carbon footprint.”
Flooring is just one of the many applications of hemp in building. As well as flooring, HempWood produces paneling, lumber, frames, furniture and small wood-turned items. HempWood doesn’t just work with hemp, but also with eucalyptus.
